Afro-textured hair

Afro-textured hair is a term used to refer to the natural texture of Black African hair that has not been altered by hot combs, flat irons, or chemicals (through perming, relaxing, or straightening). Each strand of this hair type grows in a tiny, spring-like helix shape. The overall effect is such that, despite relatively fewer hair shafts compared to straight hair,[1] Afro-textured hair appears and feels denser than straight hair.

For several reasons, possibly including its relatively flat cross section,[2] this hair type conveys a dry or matte appearance.[3][4] Its shape makes it very prone to breakage when combed or brushed. Its density also makes it very versatile and unlike any other hair texture.[4]

In many post-Columbian, Western societies, adjectives such as "wooly", "kinky", "nappy", or "spiralled" have frequently been used to describe natural afro-textured hair. More recently, however, it has become common in some circles to apply numerical grading systems to human hair types. There are also natural haircare products used today for natural hair, such as, Cantu, African Pride, and Carol's Daughter Products.

One popular version of these systems classifies afro-textured hair as 'type 4' (straight hair is type 1, wavy type 2, and curly is type 3, with the letters A, B, and C used to indicate the degree of coil variation within each type) with the subcategory of type 4C being most exemplary of this hair type (Walker, 1997). However, afro-textured hair is often difficult to categorize because of the many different variations among individuals. Those variations include pattern (coils, springs, zig zags, s-curves), pattern size (watch spring to chalk), density (sparse to dense), strand diameter (fine, medium, wide), and feel (cottony, wooly, spongy).[5]

The chart below is the most commonly used chart to help determine hair types:[6]

Type

Hair Texture

Hair Description

1a

Straight (Fine/Thin)

Very Soft, shiny, hard to hold a curl, hair tends to be oily, hard to damage.

1b

Straight (Medium)

Has lots of body. (i.e. more volume, more full)

1c

Straight (Coarse)

Hard to curl (i.e. bone straight). Most East Asians fall into this category.

2a

Wavy (Fine/Thin)

Can accomplish various styles. Definite “S” pattern. Hair sticks close to the head.

2b

Wavy (Medium)

A bit resistant to styling. Hair tends to be frizzy.

2c

Wavy (Coarse)

Hair has thicker waves. Also resistant to styling. Hair tends to be frizzy.

3a

Curly (Loose Curls)

Thick & full with lots of body. Definite “S” pattern. Hair tends to be frizzy. Can have a combination texture.

3b

Curly (Tight Curls)

Medium amount of curl. Can have a combined texture.

3c

Curly (Corkscrews)

Tight curls in corkscrews. The curls can be either kinky, or very tightly curled, with lots and lots of strands densely packed together.

4a

Kinky (Soft)

Tightly coiled. Very fragile. Has a more defined curly pattern

4b

Kinky (Wiry)

Tightly coiled. Very fragile. Less defined curly pattern. Has more of a “Z” shaped pattern.

4c

Kinky (Wiry)

Tightly coiled. Very fragile. Almost no defined curl pattern. Curls almost never clump together.[7]

Different ethnic groups have observable differences in the structure, density, and growth rate of hair. With regard to structure, all human hair has the same basic chemical composition in terms of keratin protein content.[8] Franbourg et al. have found that Black hair may differ in the distribution of lipids throughout the hair shaft.[8] Classical Afro-texture hair has been found to be not as densely concentrated as other phenotypes.[1] Specifically, the average density of Afro-textured hair was found to be approximately 190 hairs per square centimeter. This was significantly lower than that of Caucasian hair, which, on average, has approximately 227 hairs per square centimeter.[1]

Loussourarn found that Afro-textured hair grows at an average rate of approximately 256 micrometers per day, while Caucasian hair grows at approximately 396 micrometers per day.[1][9] In addition, due to a phenomenon called 'shrinkage', Afro-textured hair that is a given length when stretched straight can appear much shorter when allowed to naturally coil.[10] Shrinkage is most evident when Afro-hair is (or has recently been) wet.

A hair's shape is never completely circular. The cross-section of a hair is an ellipse which can tend towards a circle or be distinctly flattened. Asiatic heads of straight hair are formed from almost-round hairs and Caucasian hair's cross sections form oval shapes. Afro-textured hair has a flattened cross-section and is finer, and its ringlets can form tight circles with diameters of only a few millimeters. Asiatic hair is the most common while Afro-textured hair is the most uncommon.[11]

Afro-textured hair strands can possess "torsion twists", where the hair strand turns around itself. The simplest analogy is wringing a cloth, where one side is turned clockwise and the other anti-clockwise. These torsion twists may prevent the hair strands from "clumping" together into curls, instead separating them and allowing them to have a fluffier, more undefined look.[12]

Clarence (2012) suggests that afro-textured hair may have initially evolved because of an adaptive need amongst human's early hominid ancestors for protection against the intense UVradiation of the sun in Africa.[13] With regard to the hypothesized recent African origin of modern humans, the author argues that afro-textured hair was the original hair texture of all modern humans prior to the Out-of-Africa migration that is proposed to have populated the rest of the globe.[13] According to Clarence (2012), afro-textured hair may have been adaptive for the earliest modern humans in Africa because the relatively sparse density of such hair, combined with its elastic helix shape, results in an airy effect. The resulting increased circulation of cool air onto the scalp may have thus served to facilitate the body-temperature-regulation system of hominids while they lived in the open savannah.[13] Afro-hair does not respond as easily to moisture/sweat as straight hair. Instead of sticking to the neck and scalp when wet (as do straighter textures), unless totally drenched it tends to retain its basic springiness. The trait may have been retained/preferred among many equatorial human groups such as Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Australoids and the Negrito because of its contribution to enhanced comfort levels under warm conditions.[13]

Historically, sub-Saharan Africans, as in every culture, developed hairstyles that defined status, or identity, in regards to age, ethnicity, wealth, social rank, marital status, religion, fertility, manhood, and death. Hair was carefully groomed by those who understood the aesthetic standard, as the social implications of hair grooming were a significant part of community life. Dense, thick, clean, and neatly groomed hair was something highly admired and sought after. Hair groomers possessed unique styling skills allowing them to create a variety of designs that met the local cultural standards. Hair was usually dressed according to local culture.

In many traditional cultures, communal grooming was a social event when a woman could socialize and strengthen bonds between herself, other women and their families. Historically, hair braiding was not a paid trade. Since the African diaspora, in the 20th and 21st centuries it has developed as a multi-million dollar business in such regions as the United States and western Europe. An individual's hair groomer was usually someone whom they knew closely. Sessions included shampooing, oiling, combing, braiding, and twisting, plus adding accessories.

For shampooing, black soap was widely used in nations in West and Central Africa. Additionally, palm oil and palm kernel oil were popularly used for oiling the scalp. Shea butter has traditionally been used to moisturize and dress the hair: a yellow variety is popular in West Africa, and a white variety in East Africa. In North Africa, Argan Oil was applied to the hair and/or scalp for protection against the arid environment and intense sun.[14][better source needed]

Diasporic Africans in the Americas have been experimenting with ways to style their hair since their arrival in the Western Hemisphere well before the 19th century. During the approximately 400 years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which extracted over 20 million people from West and Central Africa, their beauty ideals have undergone numerous changes. Upon arrival to the Americas, slaves lacked the skills, tools, and ability to continue their traditional practices.

The issue was most particular to women as there was no time for extended hair grooming during slavery. American slaves sometimes had matted and tangled hair.

Slaves adapted, finding sheep fleece carding tools useful for detangling their hair. They suffered from scalp diseases and infestations due to their conditions. Slaves used remedies for disinfecting and cleansing their scalps, such as applying kerosine or cornmeal directly on the scalp with a cloth as they carefully parted the hair. For field work, male slaves shaved their hair and wore hats to protect their scalps against the sun.

House slaves had to appear tidy and well-groomed. The men sometimes wore wigs mimicking their masters, or similar hairstyles, while the women plaited and braided their hair.

In the 19th century, hair styling, especially among women, became more popular. Men began using axle grease to straighten and dye their hair. Cooking grease such as lard, butter, and goose grease were used to moisturize the hair. Female slaves sometimes used hot butter knives to curl their hair.

Overloaded with the suggestion that straight hair was more acceptable than kinky hair, slaves and freedmen began exploring solutions for straightening, or relaxing, their tresses. One solution was a mixture of lye and potato, which burned the scalp upon contact.

In the 1960s, natural Black hair was transformed from a simple expression of style into a revolutionary political statement. It became a fundamental tool of the Black movement in America, and “[h]air came to symbolize either a continued move toward integration in the American political system or a growing cry for Black power and nationalism.”[15]:51 Prior to this, the idealized Black person (especially Black women) “had many Eurocentric features, including hairstyles.”[15]:29 However, during the movement, the Black community endeavoured to define their own ideals and beauty standards and hair became a central icon which was “promoted as a way of challenging mainstream standards regarding hair.”[16]:35 During this time, black hair “was at its height of politicization,” and wearing an Afro was an easily distinguishable physical expression of black pride and the rejection of societal norms.[16]:43Jesse Jackson, a political activist and well-known cultural icon, says that “the way [he] wore [his] hair was an expression of the rebellion of the time”.[15]:55 Black militants and members belonging to the movement perpetuated the idea that straightening one’s hair, whether chemically or with the use of heat, was an act of self-hatred and a sign of internalized oppression imposed by White mainstream media. At this time, a Black person’s “ability to conform to mainstream standards of beauty [was] tied to being successful.”[15]:148 Thus, rejecting straightened hair symbolized a deeper act of rejecting the belief that straightening hair and other forms of grooming which were deemed ‘socially acceptable’ were the only means of looking presentable and attaining success in society. The pressing comb and chemical straighteners became stigmatized within the community as symbols of oppression and imposed White beauty ideals. Blacks sought to embrace beauty and affirm and accept their natural physical traits. One of the ultimate goals of the Black movement was to evolve to a level where Black people “were proud of black skin and kinky or nappy hair. As a result, natural hair became a symbol of that pride.”[15]:43 Negative perceptions of black hair and beauty had been passed down through the generations so they had become ingrained in black mentality to the point where they had been accepted as simple truths. Wearing natural hair was seen as a progressive statement, and for all the support that the movement gathered, there were many who opposed natural hair both for its aesthetics and the ideology that it promoted. It caused tensions between the Black and White communities, as well as discomfort amongst more conservative Blacks.

Even the style of black hair is politicized in contemporary society. These issues of style are highly charged as sensitive questions about [an individual’s] very 'identity'.[18]:34 Whether an individual decides to wear their hair in its natural state or alter it, black hairstyles convey a message. In our society, the value system of ‘white bias’, “ethnicities are valorized according to the tilt of whiteness - functions as the ideological basis for status ascription.”[18]:36 In turn, in this value system, “African elements - be they cultural or physical - are devalued as indices of low social status, while European elements are positively valorized as attributes enabling individual upward mobility”).[17]:36 Due to imperialist, European hegemonic discourse of white superiority, any indication of ethnic difference was seen as inferior. This value system is reinforced by the systematic racism that was and still is, often hidden from the public eye, in our society. Racism 'works' by encouraging the devaluation of blackness by black subjects themselves, and that a re-centering sense of pride is a prerequisite for a politics of resistance and reconstruction.[18]:36 In this system, “hair functions as a key 'ethnic signifier' because, compared with bodily shape or facial features, it can be changed more easily by cultural practices such as straightening.”[18]:36 Racism originally “'politicized' [black] hair by burdening it with a range of negative social and psychological 'meanings'”—categorizing it as a problem.[18]:37 Ethnic difference that could be easily manipulated, like hair, was altered in order for ethnic minorities assimilate into a dominant, Eurocentric society. Natural hair, such as Afro and dreadlocks, “counter-politicized the signifier of ethnic devalorization, redefining blackness as a positive attribute”.[18] By wearing ones hair as it naturally grows, those of African descent are taking back the agency in deciding the value and politics of ones own hair. Wearing ones hair naturally also opens up a new debate: Are those who decide to still wear their hair straightened, for example, less ‘black’ or ‘proud’ of one’s heritage, than those who decide to naturally wear their hair? This debate is an often-ongoing topic of discussion within the community. This issue is extremely debated and disputed, creating almost a social divide within the community – between who decide to be natural and those who do not.

After the American Civil War and emancipation, many African Americans migrated to towns or cities, where they were influenced by new styles. The photos below show 19th-century women leaders with a variety of styles with natural hair. Others straightened their hair to conform to white beauty ideals. They wanted to succeed, and to avoid mistreatment and legal and social discrimination. Some women, and a smaller number of men, lightened their hair with household bleach. A variety of caustic products that contained bleaches, including laundry bleach, designed to apply to Afro-textured hair, were developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as blacks demanded more fashion. They used creams and lotions, combined with hot irons, to straighten hair.

The black hair care industry was initially dominated by white-owned businesses. In the late 19th century, African-American entrepreneurs such as Annie Turbo Malone, Madam C. J. Walker, Madam Gold S.M. Young, Sara Spencer Washington and Garrett Augustus Morgan revolutionized hair care by inventing and marketing chemical (and heat-based) applications to alter the natural tightly curled texture. They rapidly became successful and dominated the black hair care market. In 1898, Anthony Overton founded a hair care company that offered saponified coconut shampoo and AIDA hair pomade. Men began using pomades, and other products, to achieve the standard aesthetic look.

During the 1930s, conking (vividly described in The Autobiography of Malcolm X) became an innovative method in the U.S. for Black men to straighten kinky hair. Women at that time tended either to wear wigs, or to hot-comb their hair (rather than conk it) in order to temporarily mimic a straight style without permanently altering the natural curl pattern. Popular until the 1960s, the conk hair style was achieved through the application of a painful lye, egg and potato mixture that was toxic and immediately burned the scalp.

Black-owned business in the hair industry provided jobs for thousands of African Americans. These business owners gave back strongly to the African-American community. During this time, hundreds of African Americans became owner-operators of successful beauty salons and barber shops. These offered permanents and hair-straightening, as well as cutting and styling services, some to both whites and blacks. In this era men regularly went to barber shops to have their beards groomed and some blacks developed exclusively white, elite clientele, sometimes in association with hotels or clubs. Media images tended to perpetuate ideals of European beauty of the majority culture, even when featuring African Americans.

African Americans began sponsoring their own beauty events. The winners, many of whom wore straight hair styles and some were of mixed race, adorned black magazines and product advertisements. In the early 20th century, media portrayal of traditional African hair styles, such as braids and cornrows, was associated with African Americans who were poor and lived in rural areas. In the early decades of the Great Migration, when millions of blacks left the South for opportunities in northern and midwestern industrial cities, many blacks wanted to leave this rural association behind.[14][19]

Scholars debate whether hair straightening practices arose out of black desires to conform to a Eurocentric standard of beauty, or as part of their individual experiments with fashions and changing styles. Some believe that slaves and later African Americans absorbed prejudices of the European slaveholders and colonizers, who considered most slaves as second class, as they were not citizens. Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharp say that they believe the preference for Eurocentric ideas of beauty still pervades the western world.[20]

In the United States, the successes of the civil rights movement and black power and pride movements of the 1960s and 1970s inspired African Americans to express their political commitments by adopting more traditionally African styles. The Afro hairstyle developed as an affirmation of Black African heritage, expressed by the phrase, "black is beautiful."

Over the years, the popularity of natural hair has waxed and waned. In the early 21st century, a significant percentage of African American women still straighten their hair with relaxers of some kind (either heat or chemically based). This is done despite the fact that prolonged application of such chemicals (or heat) can result in overprocessing, breakage and thinning of the hair. (Similarly, many women of European or Asian ancestry use similar products to curl their naturally straight hair.)

Since the late 20th century, blacks have experimented with a variety of styles, such as cornrows, locks, braiding, hair twists and short, cropped hair, specifically designed for Afro hair. Natural hair blogs include Black Girl Long Hair (BGLH), Curly Nikki and Afro Hair Club. With the emergence of hip-hop culture and Jamaican influences like reggae music, more non-blacks have begun to wear these hairstyles as well. A new market has developed in such hair products as "Out of Africa" shampoo.

In 1971 Melba Tolliver, a WABC-TV correspondent, made national headlines when she wore an Afro while covering the wedding of Tricia Nixon Cox, daughter of President Richard Nixon. The station threatened to take Tolliver off the air until the story caught national attention.[24]

In 1981 Dorothy Reed, a reporter for KGO-TV, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco, was suspended for wearing her hair in cornrows with beads on the ends. KGO called her hairstyle "inappropriate and distracting". After two weeks of a public dispute, an NAACP demonstration outside of the station, and negotiations, Reed and the station reached an agreement. The company paid her lost salary, and she removed the colored beads. She returned to the air, still braided, but beadless.[25]

A 1998 incident became national news when Ruth Ann Sherman, a young white teacher in Bushwick, Brooklyn, introduced her students to the 1998 book Nappy Hair by African American author Carolivia Herron. Sherman was criticized by some in the community, who thought that the book presented a negative stereotype (although it won three awards), but she was supported by most parents of her students.[26]

On April 4, 2007 radio talk-show host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team, who were playing in the Women's NCAA Championship game, as a group of "nappy-headed hos" during his Imus in the Morning show. Bernard McGuirk compared the game to "the jigaboos versus the wannabes," alluding to Spike Lee's film School Daze. Imus apologized two days later, after receiving criticism. CBS Radio canceled Don Imus' morning show a week later on April 12, 2007.

During August 2007, American Lawyer Magazine reported that an unnamed junior Glamour Magazine staffer did a presentation on the "Do's and Don'ts of Corporate Fashion" for Cleary Gottlieb, a New York City law firm. Her slide show included her negative comments about black women wearing natural hairstyles in the workplace, calling them "shocking," "inappropriate," and "political." Both the law firm and Glamour Magazine issued apologies to the staff.[27][28]

In 2009, Chris Rock produced Good Hair, a film which addresses a number of issues pertaining to African-American hair. He explores the styling industry, the variety of styles now acceptable in society for African-American women's hair, and the relations of these to African-American culture.

The Kenyan model Ajuma Nasenyana has criticized a trend in her native Kenya that rejects the indigenous Black African physical standards of beauty in favour of those of other communities. In a 2012 interview with the Kenyan broadsheet the Daily Nation, she said,

"it seems that the world is conspiring in preaching that there is something wrong with Kenyan ladies' kinky hair and dark skin[...] Their leaflets are all about skin lightening, and they seem to be doing good business in Kenya. It just shocks me. It's not OK for a Caucasian to tell us to lighten our skin[...] I have never attempted to change my skin. I am natural. People in Europe and America love my dark skin. But here in Kenya, in my home country, some consider it not attractive."[29]

In November 2012, the American actress Jada Pinkett Smith defended her daughter Willow's hair on Facebook after the girl was criticized for an "unkempt" look. She said in a TV interview, “Even little girls should not be a slave to the preconceived ideas of what a culture believes a little girl should be,” the actress said.[30]

During the 19th century, throughout the West Indies the teachings of Jamaican political leader Marcus Garvey encouraged an active rejection of European standards of beauty. The resulting Rastafari Movement of the 20th century has maintained that the growth of freeform dreadlocks is related to spiritual enlightenment, largely informed by the Biblical Nazirite oath. The Rastafari movement has been so influential in the visibility and subsequent popularity of dreadlocks throughout the Caribbean and the global African diaspora, that the term "rasta" has become synonymous with a dreadlocked individual. Today, dreadlocks are common among Afro-Caribbeans and Afro-Latin Americans.

The care and styling of natural black hair has become an enormous industry in the United States. Numerous salons and beauty supply stores cater solely to clients with natural Afro-textured hair. Online forums, social networking groups and web-logs have also become enormously popular resources in the exchange of styling ideas, techniques, and hair-care procedures.

The afro is a large, often spherical growth of Afro-textured hair that became popular during the Black power movement. The afro has a number of variants including the "afro-puff" and a variant in which the afro is treated with a blow dryer to become a flowing mane. The hi-top fade was common among African-American men in the 1980s and has since been replaced in popularity by the Caesar hair cut.

Other styles include plaits or braids, the two-strand twist and basic twists all of which can form into manicured dreadlocks if the hair is allowed to knit together in the style-pattern. Basic twists include finger-coils and comb-coil twists. Dreadlocks, also called "dreads," "locks" or "locs," can also be formed by allowing the hairs to weave together on their own from an afro. Another option is the trademarked "Sisterlocks" method, which look similar to what could be called very neat micro-dreadlocks.[31]

Manicured locks - alternatively called salon, or fashion locks - have numerous styling options that include strategic parting, sectioning and patterning of the dreads. Popular dreadlocked styles include cornrows, the braid-out style or lock crinkles, the basket weave and pipe-cleaner curls. Others include a variety of dreaded mohawks or lock-hawks, a variety of braided buns and combinations of basic style elements.

Natural hair can also be styled into bantu knots, which involves sectioning the hair with square or triangular parts and fastening it into tight knots on the head. Bantu knots can be made from both loose natural hair as well as dreadlocks. When braided flat against the scalp, natural hair can be worn as basic cornrows or form a countless variety of artistic patterns.

Other styles include the "natural" (also known as a mini-fro or "teenie weenie afro") and "microcoils" for close-cropped hair, the twist-out and braid-out, "brotherlocks" and "sisterlocks," the fade and any combination of styles such as cornrows and afro-puff.

A majority of Black hair styles involve parting the natural into individual sections before styling.[32] Research shows that excessive braiding, tight cornrows, relaxing, and vigorous dry combing of afro-textured hair can be harmful to the hair and scalp. They have also been known to cause ailments such as alopecia, balding at the edges, excessive dry scalp, and bruises on the scalp. Keeping hair moisturized, trimming ends, and using very little to no heat will prevent breakage and split ends.

Nigerian football player Isah Eliakwu

Grammy-Award winning American artist India.Arie, also known for singing about Afro-textured hair in award-winning song I Am Not My Hair

Modern Black man wearing cornrows

Dancer at the Tribeca Film Festival

Afro-Brazilian actor Darlan Cunha

Mae Jemison, American physician and NASA astronaut in short natural Afro